Archive for May 30, 2011

Sunrise this morning was 3:39 am, and the sun won’t set until a minute after midnight tomorrow. Even at its lowest, at 1:47:25 tomorrow morning, it will be only 3.19° below the northern horizon. For practical purposes, it is now light all night. We’re still gaining about 6 minutes a day with the sun above the horizon.

The chives (l. foreground) and tarragon (r. background) are perennial. The sage and lavendar were planted this morning.Empty holes will get other herbs.

I’ve been lazy on reporting the change in day length, using a website that does all the calculations for me — but it seems unable to calculate the day length when sunset is the following day. NOAA has a site that lets me calculate the solar elevation, and by next week I hope I’ll have an Excel spreadsheet that lets me keep track of day length without hand calculations.

Mints and lantana at the south end of the pea bed. This bed is one block high. Two of the other three are two blocks high, and I'm raising the third this year.

As to weather, we’ve been having a heat wave. Four straight days in the 80’s, with 86° on the 28th. That may not sound all that warm if you live in the southern states, but we’re melting. It’s enough to tempt me into trying to figure out a way of putting air conditioning in the bedroom. (At least, having grown up in Kansas, I know enough to shut the house up in the daytime and open the windows at night.) The hot weather is forecast to remain at least until the middle of the week, with no rain in sight.

The second crop of mosquitoes is out – the little ones that come in swarms. One of the insects (at least) has made it into the house and keeps dive-bombing me at night. The rest pester me while I’m trying to get the garden planted and try to figure out how to get into the house.

Lots of lawn watering, and I’m slowly getting the garden planted. I planted the squash yesterday, and the first columbine flower opened last night. Today I hope to get the rest of the herbs planted in the holes around the raised beds – if the mosquitoes let me.